Dan Hodges is a former Labour Party and GMB trade union official, and has managed numerous independent political campaigns. He writes about Labour with tribal loyalty and without reservation. You can read Dan's recent work here

Tom Watson won battles, but his brutal political style is a relic of the past. After the Falkirk disgrace, he had to go

As I wrote on Tuesday, Tom is the last of a breed. The aggressive, ultra-tribal, machine politics of which he was the master is now a relic of the past. Which in some ways is a shame, because Ed Miliband’s operation could probably do with a few more fixers and fighters, and few less academics and policy wonks.

That’s probably why Ed Miliband, if accounts are to be believed, urged him to stay when he initially tendered his resignation. Though he will have done so with his fingers crossed behind his back. Miliband came to rely on Tom Watson as a protector. But he was also wary of him. Miliband and Watson’s political style – if not outlook – could not have been more different. And Watson’s relationship with a number of key Labour factions, most notably the unions, and the remaining elements of the old Gordon Brown operation, meant he was never completely viewed by Miliband as a true ally.

Obviously it’s that relationship with the unions, and in particular with his old flatmate Len McCluskey, that is seen to be the reason for his decision to return to the backbenches. Only time will reveal the full extent of Watson’s full involvement in the affair. But despite the increasingly ludicrous efforts by Unite and sections of the Labour commentariat to brush the scandal under the carpet, what was going on in Falkirk was a disgrace, and Tom Watson knew it. Tonight Len McCluskey should also be considering his position.

Tom Watson is a divisive figure. He says in his characteristically flamboyant resignation letter that some people had never forgiven him for toppling Tony Blair in 2006. And he’s right, they haven’t. But Watson was not shy of re-fighting the tired battles of the Blair/Brown years himself. Which is why his appointment to the influential role of Labour campaign coordinator was a foolish one.

That said, Tom Watson will not now be primarily remembered for bringing down Tony Blair, but instead for his single-handed crusade against News International. I‘m troubled by much of what has come out of the phone-hacking affair, and think the Leveson inquiry represents a genuine threat to press freedom. But even Tom Watson’s fiercest critics – of whom there are many – cannot deny he prosecuted his campaign with a courage and tenacity rarely, if ever, seen from a solitary backbencher. Anyone who thinks Parliament doesn’t matter should have a quiet word with Rupert Murdoch.

In the end that crusade, and the other battles that Watson has felt compelled to fight, have overwhelmed him. But it was always going to be that way. Tom Watson was always going to go down fighting. And Tom knows the person who really brought him down was himself.